- Active: c. 1660-1674
- Japanese: 寛文絵師 (Kanbun eshi)
The Kanbun Master was one of the earliest pioneers in the woodblock print art style which would later come to be known as ukiyo-e. Nothing is known about his personal life, birth and death dates, or even his name; scholars have thus come to call him simply "the Kanbun Master", after the imperial era of Kanbun during which most of his works were produced.[1]
The Kanbun Master produced chiefly book illustrations for sex manuals and courtesan critiques, his style exerting a profound influence on Hishikawa Moronobu, sometimes called the "father of ukiyo-e", who was chiefly active a decade later.
References
- Lane, Richard. Images from the Floating World. New York: Konecky & Konecky, 1978. pp38-41.
- ↑ This sobriquet for the artist was coined by art collector & dealer Richard Lane.
"Caught in the Act." Honolulu Museum of Art online collections database.